


I've dreamt of storms, I've dreamt of sound

by sagansjagger



Series: It's the End of the World As We Know It [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Needs a Hug, F/M, Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, Post-Episode: s03 Chat Blanc, Rabbit Alix Kubdel | Bunnyx, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:53:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28985163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sagansjagger/pseuds/sagansjagger
Summary: Chat Blanc was lost.After spending months--could have been months, could have been years; he never could tell time anymore--alone, he'd found himself slowly going insane.If he could only stick to his schedule... The schedule would help him grasp his sanity with tenuous fingers, he knew, if only he could stick to it...But then a red-haired, rabbit-suited woman comes to visit, claiming to be a friend, and his life is upended once again.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Alix Kubdel, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: It's the End of the World As We Know It [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1835440
Comments: 15
Kudos: 60





	I've dreamt of storms, I've dreamt of sound

**Author's Note:**

> This is for Blanc week on tumblr, with the prompt The Other Timeline. 
> 
> This piece is not exactly part of the universe of my other Chat Blanc fics, [A Boy in White](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25325890) and [Pawsome](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25344901), but is heavily based off of them and can be said to be a companion to them.
> 
> Enjoy!

Chat Blanc was lost. 

Not literally, of course; he stayed next to the Tower every day, however long the time had been while he lived in the hellscape that he’d made Paris into.

But he’d messed up. He’d messed up so bad.

He’d stopped following his schedule.

“What have I done, Bug?” Chat said to Marinette, who waved at him from the Eiffel Tower’s rusty girders. She offered him a shrug and a smile, and he continued pacing. “What am I supposed to be doing?”

Chat wasn’t religious, but the schedule was his god. He stuck to it like his akumatized life depended on it, despite not being able to tell time outside of sunrise, sunset, and night. 

Clearly, he needed to follow the schedule, or he’d end up lost.

He hated being lost.

Chat glanced at the still-blue sky, panic licking his brain and anxiety twisting his gut. He thought back to what he’d done that day so he could figure out what he’d messed up by skipping.

He’d already swam down to say hello to Ladybug and growl at Gabriel. Talking to them had taken a few hours today--or what had felt like hours, could have been minutes--but he was confident Ladybug knew he’d been thinking of her outside the deep. 

After that, Chat had pretended to eat lunch--he didn’t really need to eat, but he liked to make believe he did. Eating used to be one of Chat’s favorite activities. He ate air steak, air ice cream, air salads--and especially air passion fruit macarons. The textures of the air foods were different in his imagination, though after a while, they’d all started blending together. 

He’d forgotten what food was.

After eating, he’d made a claw mark on the exposed parts of the Eiffel Tower. The marks were useless to him because he couldn’t focus long enough to count the days. 

Next, he’d floated face up in the water, staring at the sky. The sky was always changing, clouds shifting and colors appearing with the sunset. The sky reminded Chat he was alive. One morning, it had been foggy, and Chat Blanc was overjoyed. He’d breathed in the white clouds on the water as if he’d never get the chance again and found them cold and refreshing. 

He’d pretended to dine on fog that day. 

Chat never floated face down anymore because the dead Parisians would stare up at him, accusing him of doing bad things. He’d poked a little girl once, craving a human touch, and had gasped as she’d dissolved in the water.

After staring upward, Chat had gone for a run. He’d climbed the Tower again and again. Up and down. Up and down. Up and down, until he’d exhausted himself. 

He’d skipped the post-run crunches and the second floating session today and went straight to a nap. _Aha._ That had been his downfall. He’d woken up disoriented and disappointed at himself.

Chat clawed at his face, tugging on his mask. “Why did I fall asleep? I have to burn calories! I’m a model!” 

He stomped around the Tower’s girders, kicking rocks he’d brought up from the deep. “Of course I can’t,” he said to Marinette. “I can’t work out _after_ a nap. That’s not how it’s done!”

Chat realized he’d made a reference to Bakerix and cracked up. Tears flooded his eyes as he giggled long and hard. He eventually threw his head back and let the laughter erupt from his mouth as if trying to escape his hoarse throat. 

“Ha! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!” Chat forced out, putting a pause between each word. 

Abruptly, he was crying, burying his face in his clawed hands and letting loose keening howls into them. Chat Blanc sobbed just as long and just as hard as he’d laughed, kicking himself for throwing off his schedule even more. 

Without the schedule, he didn’t know what he was supposed to be doing. He didn’t know what the day was going to hold, and that scared him. 

His feline ear flicked as he picked up a noise. Chat whipped his head up, tears streaming freely down his cheeks, and saw a red-haired rabbit woman appear out of a portal. 

“Hey, Kitty!” she said, waving at him. She set her umbrella on her shoulders and beamed. “Long time no see!”

Chat shuddered away from her, fully prepared for her to attack him. “Who are you?”

“Aw, don’t recognize me?” She pouted, placing the tip of her umbrella onto the girder and leaning on it. “I’m Bunnyx. You look like you were pretty sad just now.”

Chat snarled, his lip curled back to bare his teeth. “What’s it to you?”

Bunnyx shrugged. “Just an observation.” Then she laughed. “You’re so rude! Here I am, coming to visit you, and you don’t even know how to treat people!”

Chat started. “You’re… here to visit me?”

“Yup,” Bunnyx said, popping the p. “I saw you crying and figured you needed cheering up.”

“You… Can you fix this?” Chat waved his hand at the waterscape, growing more and more eager with every passing moment. He had a visitor! He had a friend! Who could fix things! 

Bunnyx tapped her chin. “Mmmm. I’ll see what I can do. For now, can ya tell me what happened?”

Chat stared at his feet, close to crying again. He bit his knuckles. “She… She died.”

Bunnyx sat down on the edge of the Tower, her legs dangling over the side. She patted the seat next to her and shrugged when Chat Blanc chose to squat down on all fours a few feet from her. 

“Who died, Chat? You can tell me.”

“She did. Ladybug.” Chat growled. If all Bunnyx was going to do was make him relive his mistakes, he would just kill her right now. His fingers twitched, itching to launch a Cataclysm at her. “But at least Marinette is with me.”

Bunnyx’s brows rose. Her voice was soft, almost impossibly-and-unpredictably soft, when she said, “She is, huh?” 

Chat tipped his head towards where Marinette sat. “I like her better with her hair down. She knows that. She knows that, and she decides to wear pigtails anyway no matter how many times I Cataclysm her.”

Bunnyx gave him a thin smile. “Tell me about her. Marinette.”

Chat’s feline ears perked up. “Oh, I love Marinette. I love her so much. Love, love, love. That’s not even a word anymore. Love. I don’t even know what it means.” 

Bunnyx chuckled, so Chat Blanc continued, his heart rattling around in his ribcage. “And she loved me back! She wore her hair down for me and stood up to my father and kissed me and fed me and helped me do my homework sometimes.”

“She sounds like a great girl.”

“That’s an understatement.”

Chat hadn’t noticed, but somehow he’d inched closer and closer to Bunnyx until he was almost on top of her, looming over her with clenched fists and gritted teeth. He wanted to strangle her. How dare she mess up his schedule? 

But she did say she wanted to cheer him up, and she didn’t seem to be afraid of him. If he’d smelled fear on her, he wouldn’t know what to do. If she’d started crying, he’d be lost again, and probably start crying himself. 

He’d _probably_ start crying. Or he’d kill her. He couldn’t make up his mind.

Bunnyx kicked her feet in an arrhythmic pattern. Kick. Kick kick kick. Kick kick. Kick kick.

It drove Chat, a student of music, absolutely bonkers. He lunged forward and grabbed her legs, holding them still and digging his claws into her calves. “Don’t do that.”

Bunnyx glared at him. “Do what?”

“Kick like that.” 

Then Bunnyx did something he did not expect. Carefully, moving slowly, as if she were afraid to spook him, she reached up and scratched behind his feline ear.

Chat melted. He hadn’t been touched in ages, especially not affectionately. Sometimes he’d touch his own face, but his hands were always cold. Bunnyx’s were _warm_ , and as she moved the pads of her fingers around on his scalp, he found himself purring. 

He flopped into her lap, his purrs emanating from his chest. As Bunnyx used one hand to rub behind his ears, she used the other to stroke down his spine. Chat breathed deeply through his nose, almost falling asleep at the petting. 

“Tell me about your lady, Chat,” Bunnyx whispered, smoothing his bangs away from his face. “Tell me why you love her.”

Chat groaned. He felt good, so he didn’t want to spoil that with talking. But Bunnyx had asked an excellent question--sort of, her words were less a question and more a command--and Chat could never refuse a direct order from an adult.

“I love my lady for her passion,” he started and then proceeded to tell Bunnyx everything there ever was to know about his Marinette. 

How she was madly clumsy out of the suit and confident within it. How she baked him passion fruit macarons and supported his fencing and was just a beautiful person inside and out. How brave she was. How she stood up for what was right. How she ran for class president and never put up with his punning or his cocky, graceless attempts to woo her. 

How she took care of him when he was sick, made him feel like he was the most important person on earth, and cheered him up when he was down. How she supported her friends and treated him like an equal partner inside the suit and out of it.

How she loved him back.

By the time he’d finished, his eyes were wet, and his throat was raw, as was his brain. Bunnyx had never stopped petting him, to which Chat was absurdly grateful. The sun was scattering hues of scarlet and gold across the sky as it dipped down below the horizon.

Chat hadn’t followed his schedule. His breath hitched twice.

“Is that bad?” he asked himself.

“Is what bad?” Bunnyx and Marinette both answered.

“I didn’t follow my schedule all day today. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.” He turned his head up to stare at Bunnyx’s blue eyes. They were so different from Marinette’s--ice instead of bluebell--but just as kind. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Well, that’s easy.” Bunnyx booped his nose. “You just start over tomorrow.”

Chat gasped. His brain whispered _kill her_ , but he didn’t want to. “Will I see you tomorrow?”

“Mmm,” Bunnyx said, tapping her chin. “I’ll see what I can do.”

***

Chat did see her tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that. She came every day at the same time for weeks.

One day, she’d brought him a solar-powered clock. She’d set it to his time and hung it up on the Tower’s girders. The next day, she’d brought him a proper calendar and a pen. The day after that, she’d brought him a ball of yarn, and had laughed her butt off after he’d chased it down and had gotten tangled up in the strings.

Chat was eagerly awaiting her next visit, sitting on the Tower where her portal would soon appear. She’d said she’d bring him a very special surprise to look forward to, and she’d had yet to disappoint him.

Bunnyx popped her head out of the portal with a smile, and Chat bounced on the balls of his feet.

 _Kill her, kill her, kill her!_ his Akuma screamed. 

_No,_ Chat Blanc whispered back.

Bunnyx stepped through the portal and Chat crawled on all fours all around her. “You’re here! You’re here, and you brought my special surprise, and I can’t wait to see what it is, and it’s probably better than the yarn, and I can’t wait for it, so please give it to me right away because I’ll have to kill you if you didn’t bring it!”

Bunnyx laughed. “Easy, Kitty.” She was holding a paper bag labeled Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie. The name meant something to Chat; he just couldn’t figure out what.

She offered the paper bag to him, and Chat tore into it, excited to see what she’d brought. Inside was something he recognized but couldn’t possibly name. It was a small, yellow sandwich that looked sweet. “What is it?”

“It’s a macaron.” Bunnyx pointed at it. “Passionfruit. Your favorite.”

Chat didn’t have to be told twice. He stuffed the entire cookie into his mouth. His eyes fluttered closed. The tart, sweet flavors of the fruit filling exploded on his tongue, and he felt the sting of tears high in his nose. The cookie tasted mainly of almonds, like marzipan, and the passion fruit was pleasantly tangy. Even the texture of the food squishing and crunching against his teeth was heavenly. Chat swallowed, feeling the macaron slide down his throat, and gasped, having finished it.

Chat sat down heavily. It had been such a long, long time since he’d eaten anything that he’d forgotten the taste and texture of food. He didn’t need to eat as an Akuma, but he’d missed it so much. Eating air macarons would never be the same again.

Chat wept. His breath hitched twice, and he pulled his knees up to his chest, burying his face in them. His tears burned as they flowed freely down his cheeks. He was whimpering, grimacing, and making a fool of himself. His heart slammed in his throat, choking him, and he found himself wiping snot all over his knees. 

Bunnyx stood nearby, knowing not to touch him when he was like this. He tore his gaze away from the ground and looked up at her. When he spoke, his words rasped across his throat like a wire brush. “Thank you.”

Bunnyx knelt next to him, wrapping her up in his arms. He let her, resting his face on her shoulder and wetting her super suit with his tears. “I can’t leave you like this, Kitty. I just can’t.”

“Fix me?” Chat begged. He’d thought he was above begging. Apparently not.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

***

Chat was back on schedule. Bunnyx had left after bringing him the macaron, and he’d made a mark on his calendar. It was St. Athanase’s Day, his fifth name’s day. He’d floated face up in the water, gone on his run, done his post-workout crunches, had a floating session and a nap, and had eaten air dinner.

The dinner had been bitter. He’d eaten nothing but air macarons, rolling the air across his tongue and imagining the mouthfeel of the passion fruit cookie that he’d eaten earlier. He wanted more of them. He wanted Bunnyx to bring him the bakery’s whole stash. She’d said she’d see what she could do.

Now it was time for singing. He had to use his voice or lose it. Sometimes he screamed into the void; other times he sang. Today, he whispered. 

“Little kitty on a roof, all alone without his lady…”

Bunnyx’s portal opened behind him. He turned, ready to throw a mega-Cataclysm at her for coming at the wrong time and messing up his schedule. _How could she? How dare she? She knows not to come after the appointed time! She knows it!_

“Chat Noir?” 

There, standing in front of him in all her star-bright glory, was Ladybug. Chat’s fingers twitched, and he called back the white ball of power, sucking it into himself. 

Bunnyx had kept her promise. She’d wanted to help fix him, and she’d brought the one person who could. Chat wanted to cry.

Instead, he smiled. “My lady?”

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on tumblr at [@sing-in-me-oh-muse](https://sing-in-me-oh-muse.tumblr.com)!
> 
> \---
> 
> Are you interested in reading or writing fanfiction? Do you draw or edit pictures or even cosplay? Are you looking for a community of like-minded and supportive people? Then join the [Miraculous Fanworks](https://discord.gg/mlfanworks) Discord server! 
> 
> We are always welcoming new members, and would love to see you. We offer a variety of conversations, from writing support to encouragement for your art to cosplay tips. We even have monthly server-wide events and group writing projects! 
> 
> Come join today!


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